Why blogs? Ask, Stella Artois

Full disclosure: I recently received a press kit from Stella Artois about the upcoming unveiling of their cinematic Web site ‘La Bouteille':

I’m super excited about this for two reasons:

As a blogger: A cinematic Web site? I love to play with shiny new Web things. Of course, I’m going to go check out the launch later this month and if it’s even mildly engaging, chatter about it like crazy in this space.

As a marketer / advertiser: I love to see traditional marketing organizations and agencies really “getting” what bloggers can bring to the table. Yeah, sure, Sony and BK have been doing it forever, but broader strategic adoption seemed to be stalled until this year.

Apropos of budgeting season, I’ll write a full business case for investing in blogging next month, but, until then, here are my top 5:

1. SEO: There is no cheaper, faster way to get solid organic search engine optimization than riding the coattails of the mega-servers at the top of the blogging service pyramid.
   
   
2. Low-hanging fruit: So, you want to talk to the advertising reporter at the New York Times. It will cost you and he’s got a lot of heavy hitters on his tail - but, yeah, you can do that.
   
   Or, you can invest half the money and talk to a couple of hundred bloggers – who by-and-large are pre-disposed to early adoption, curiosity about new products and general buzziness.


3. Share of voice: You’ve likely seen this Yahoo! Pyramid, representing "phases of value creation" at Yahoo! Groups as outlined a year ago by the company's head of technology development.
   
   Short-story: A very few people online are creating content. A larger number are aggregating it into ‘did you see’ posts. And the rest are, well, checking it out.
   
   Pair that with the recent report about the number of technology reporters who CITE BLOGGERS AS SOURCES. Not as man-on-the-street interviews, but as credible industry sources. It’s 67% of technology reporters. 67%.
   
   And, you start to see what we’re looking at: A small, vocal group of ProAms has been awarded a lot of authority – through Web behavior, RSS feeds, media attention and SEO - with little more than an interest in publishing.
   
   
4. On-demand delivery: Why wait for someone to find your Web site or read a review about your new product? Talk them into signing up for your feed once and deliver the content wherever they dine on feeds.


5. Changes in consumer behavior: Online ‘pre-shopping’ behavior and the emerging credibility and impact of user-generated consumer reviews has changed the offline game. Having people – real people, like bloggers, commenters, etc. – talk about your product / service / etc. has become hugely important as consumers go online in droves to ‘try on’ brands before going offline to buy.

Comments

[Bob]

I like it and the background and colors make it easy to read

[Vince]

I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!f

[Dan]

keep up the good work!e

[Laura]

Hi! I'm trying to get a press contact for Stella to see if they will be a sponsor for a feature film I am working on now but I am having a hard time locations their number or email. Do you have any info. from your experience w/ them that you could share w. me? Thanks!

[Ann]

Because they are fun? In all seriousness, that's a great question and there seem to be many answers.